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On the 8th of July, 1902,
Mrs. Dollar and I sailed on the then crack steamer "China" of the
Pacific Mail fleet. We had an interesting but uneventful trip until we
reached Yokohama, We also visited Tokio and Kobe.
The trip from Kobe
through the Inland Sea was beautiful. The thousands of small islands,
all more or less wooded and many of them cultivated, with the hillsides
terraced to the top. gave a fine scenic effect. The sea is well named.
Sometimes it is many miles wide, then there are narrows less than a half
mile across. The formation is volcanic, many of the hills being very
steep and sharp.
INLAND SEA
The
thing that impressed me most after we sighted the coast of Japan was the
number of boats engaged in fishing The whole coast was alive with them.
At night the lights were so numerous it looked just like a lighted city.
Many times I could not believe that they were not cities, there were so
many boats m this Inland Sea. At any time we could count several
hundred, but when we came to Shirnonoseki Straits they were so numerous
the steamer had to slow down "dead slow" and keep blowing the whistle
continuously to get a passage through them. They were of all shapes and
sizes from the old junk, made many years ago mostly of bamboo, to
sanpans fifteen feet long. The junks have high bow and stern twenty to
twenty-five feet out of the water with a freeboard of from three to four
feet amidships. Then there were lots of fore and aft schooners, not bad
looking but too dumpy, too much beam for their length. The sampans are
four to five feet wide, three feet deep, one or two masts and a long
pointed bow eight to ten feet long, which is of no use.
This
blockade continued past Moji and Shimonoseki. opposite each other, near
the outer or western end of the Inland Sea. There we saw a great many
steamers, mostly English tramps, either loading coal cargoes or taking
bunker coal. Coal is about the only business going on there.
Nagasaki is typically Japanese, with a population of probably thirty to
forty thousand. We climbed over two hundred steps to a temple on the top
of the hill overlooking the town and harbor. This is called the "Bronze
Horse Temple," there being a large horse of bronze in the square. Some
deer and other animals were there too. From this elevation it looked as
if the town was built solid, and we could see nothing but roofs, not
even the sign of a street. They have a good water works and the sewers
are all open and made of good masonry.
No
houses have more than two stories, and most of them have only one. The
stores are very small, a large one would be fifteen or twenty feet by
thirty feet. The streets are from ten to twelve feet wide and crooked,
but very well paved, mostly for jinrickshaws and hand carts. It is a
rare sight to see a horse, and then they are very small; there are some
oxen, but they carry their loads on their backs. The men are also beasts
of burden.
Before leaving Nagasaki we took on twelve hundred tons of coal in seven
hours. There were about four hundred men and women engaged in the work,
and as it was all handed up in small baskets passed from one to another,
the work went on very fast.
When
we passed out we noticed that, like all Japanese ports, it was fortified
on every available point, evidently-getting ready for the inevitable war
of European nations in the Far East.
We
crossed over the China Sea to Shanghai. The steamer had to lay off
Woosung at the mouth of the Whangpoa River, Shanghai being twelve miles
distant up the river. Woosung is at the junction of the Whangpoa with
the mighty Yangtsze Kiang, and at this point the river is several miles
wide. The channel to Shanghai is narrow and crooked and quite shallow in
places, caused by the constant washing in of the banks. There has been
considerable talk of changing this, and making a good, straight channel
with sufficient water. (All this has been done, and now a vessel drawing
twenty five feet can go direct to Shanghai at any high tide.)
SHANGHAI
At
the first sight of Shanghai I got the impression of its being a great
commercial city, but on closer inspection I came to the conclusion it
required a great: deal to bring it up to that standard. (All this has
been accomplished in later years.) The old city proper is walled in and
is closely built up of mostly small-sized buildings, narrow, crooked
streets and containing a mass of humanity. Then there are what are
called the Settlements. Farthest up is the French, next the British, and
then what is called the American. [Unfortunately,
the American Government did not have the foresight nor the ordinary
far-seeing business sumption to hang on to their site, but let it slip
through their fingers. And now, in order to remove our Consulate from a
miserable back street, our Government had to buy a site in 1916. and had
to pay $300,000,000 for what they had had a few years ago f'or nothing.
The British were looking to the future commerce of China, and retained a
beautiful site of fifty acres for their Consulate right in
the middle of this great commercial city. Our Government is slowly
waking up to the fact that to be a
truly great nation we must have foreign trade
and lots of it. We used to think we were sufficient unto ourselves, but
this is past and a new era has begun.]
But
to come back to old Shanghai. Along the river side and extending back a
half mile going towards Woosung is what is called Hongkew, which was the
American concession and where a large Chinese settlement has sprung up
across the river, steamship companies were just making their first moves
to get wharves and terminals, but little had been done at this time.
This is called Pootung.
The
name, Shanghai, means a city by the sea. At one time the waters of the
China Sea covered the present site of the city. The land is an alluvial
soil, perfectly level, and cut up by innumerable small creeks, most of
which are now filled up. The largest, Soochow Creek, divides what was
the American concession from the British concession. The Yankinpang,
another creek which has filled in, separates the French and British
concessions. The old Chinese city was surrounded by a wall, part of
which has been taken down and made into a wide street.
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT BUILDING—SHANGHAI
Back
of each settlement is the residential section, but since that visit,
sixteen years ago, it has grown
beyond recognition. What were fields are now filled with beautiful homes
and well paved streets. Since that time street cars have been
introduced. The population has nearly doubled, as now there are about
one and one quarter million foreigners and Chinese. But it is in
commerce that the greatest progress has been made, and I am sure the
most sanguine could not even come near to estimating what it will be in
the next fifty years.
CANTON
At
Canton the foreigners all live on the island or Shameen, as it is
called, for protection. Two bridges connect it with Canton, and the
gates are shut at sundown. The Victoria Hotel is the only one there. The
lower part of the island belongs to the French and the English own about
two-thirds of the upper end, which is all owned and occupied by the
consulates and business houses of various nations. The streets are very
wide—about one or two hundred feet—but no part of them is used except
the concrete sidewalks as there are no wheeled vehicles and no horses
either on the island or in Canton, and the grass grows quite high in the
streets. The houses are well built of brick or stone and are surrounded
by many shade trees.
Gunboats, small war ships, and light draft cargo steamers anchor in
front of the island on the river side. There is a depth of about
eighteen feet of water here, but a great deal of the freight is carried
from and to Hong Kong in Chinese junks and other craft.
Early
in the morning, with a guide, we crossed the bridge over the canal
between the island and the city. We each had four men carrying us in
chirrs. The streets of the city are all about the same, six to eight
feet wide, and straight only for about one hundred feet at a stretch;
some have gradual bends and some very sharp curves. The houses are
generally of bamboo, having one or two stories, and bamboo matting is
stretched across from the top of one house to the opposite one, shading
the sun from the street, so that in passing through the city one rarely
sees the sun.
The
streets are so narrow there is barely room to pass two chairs and, as
everything is carried on men's shoulder's, the streets are very
congested at times and it is quite difficult to get along, but the
carriers are expert at crowding, and so manage to push through. We met
men carrying almost every conceivable thing: logs, stone, brick, mortar,
goods for export, and goods imported; we also met a funeral with a band
and men carrying the great heavy coffin, which was like a log of wood.
THE CITY OF THE DEAD
A
very interesting sight was the City of the Dead. It is all walled by
long rows of one story buildings, containing apartments mostly twenty by
ten feet in area—some thirty by fifteen feet. Each apartment contains
one coffin only, of people who have died many years ago. The coffin
rests in the middle of the room on a stand, beside which there is a
table and chairs, with tea and cakes replenished every morning, and a
light is kept continually burning for the spirit when it returns. These
are only the abodes of the very rich dead, and it is all beautifully
kept up through all these years. The coffins are of the most beautiful
workmanship I have ever seen, many of them being of ebony, polished to
the highest degree. They are mostly round and resemble the cut off a
log.
We
took lunch at the five-story pagoda which is on a hill at the City Wall.
The City Wall is about thirty feet wide at the top, one hundred and
fifty feet at the bottom and thirty feet high, in some places much more.
The pagoda overlooks the entire city, and is about one hundred and fifty
feet square at the bottom and sixty to seventy feet at the top, each
story being about fifty feet in height. It is very much neglected, and,
like the Empire, is fast going to decay The fortifications on the wall
and at this place would have been good one hundred and fifty years ago,
but are now of no use. The cannons are on wooden carriages, and many
have rotted away until they have fallen down.
Looking down from the pagoda the river is very pretty, and many of the
canals that run through the city can be seen, but the streets, being so
narrow and croaked, cannot be seen at all so that it looks like one mass
of roofs, but the foreign settlement looms up better. The French church
and the pawn shops are the only remarkable buildings. The pawn shops are
square, stone buildings, say thirty to fifty feet square and six or
eight stories high, with small windows. They look like watch towers. In
the number of joss houses and temples this city is well supplied. I
cannot give an idea of their number but we were continually passing them
all day, from the small stone altar, to the great gorgeous ones; our own
San Francisco Chinatown joss houses resemble them, on a small scale.
I was
interested in the lumber yards, of which there are a great many, which
mostly supply wood for coffins. It takes a good big log to make a coffin
as they are round and hollowed out like a dug-out canoe. You can imagine
the job it would be for men to carry the logs through the narrow,
crooked streets to the various yards from the river or canals, where
they are sawn into lumber by hand. If the lumber must be dried. it is
spread out on the roofs of the houses in the sun. American lumber was
only conspicuous by its absence.
Previously the people had not met many foreigners and were not at all
friendly, as we could see by the looks of disgust on their faces how
they hated us.
It
was not safe for us to stop unless we got inside of closed doors.
Whenever we halted on the streets we could only stop for a few seconds
as the crowd would immediately gather from all directions, and we would
be jammed in and could not get out. Mrs. Dollar's hat was the star
attraction for the women and children wherever we went.
SWATOW
Dropping back to Hong
Kong, we left that city on the Japanese steamer "Auping Maru" for Swatow
and Amoy. We were the only Americans or Europeans on board. The entrance
to Swatow is among rocky islands, with channels somewhat narrow and
crooked. The town is up the river about three miles from the ocean, but
the river has a good width. Before coming to an anchor the steamer was
surrounded by a multitude of small sampans of all kinds and
descriptions, all propelled by being sculled when coming at full speed.
Some of the more adventurous ones, runners for Chinese boarding houses,
came on board in this way: they had long bamboo poles with an iron hook
on the end and they would hook this on the iron fife rail and come on
board by putting their feet against the side of the ship and climbing up
over the rail, It was quite a sight, and when the steamer slowed down we
were fairly crowded with them, I should say three hundred came on board,
all clamoring for patronage, either to go ashore with them or to go to
their hoarding houses.
When
we made fast to the company's buoy, about five hundred feet from shore,
all kinds of peddlers came aboard, even women trying to get clothes to
mend. We had a large number of Chinese passengers and a lot of freight
to put off. After breakfast we went ashore and through the town. The
town is occupied by warehouses (Godowns, so called) and the few European
offices, which are generally enclosed within a high stone wall.
Swatow has somewhat the appearance of a European town, the style of
houses being somewhat of that kind, although the streets are narrow and
crooked with the usual smells and dirt. We saw a temple in which there
was some very fine carving, also some bas-reliefs on the wall enclosing
the place. They were very large and represented dragons and mythical
deities, mostly of pottery painted in gaudy-colors; the place was very
dirty, and, to add to that, a lot of hogs were roaming around the court
yard.
They
are improving the water front and building a sea wall at Swatow. There
are many steamers running in here from various parts of China and
several from Singapore. When we were there a large four-masted steamer
sailed for Java with eighteen hundred coolies. We took a lot of liquid
indigo from here to Amoy.
AMOY
The
entrance to Amoy, like Swatow, is among islands and is narrow and
crooked. The city is about, seven miles up the river, which is fairly
wide and of good depth. Our vessel lay at the Caps buoy, four hundred
feet from shore. A great crowd came to meet us here as at Swatow. Amoy
has the name of being the dirtiest city in the world. There are no
wheeled vehicles of any kind here, and no chairs except private ones, so
we had to walk. We started out to see the city, and got along all right
until we progressed well into the heart of the place. In a city like San
Francisco it would be an easy matter to get out, but not so here where
the streets are not more than six feet wide and are covered over with
bamboo matting to keep out the sun, and where they come to an abrupt
ending with a stone wall (This is done to keep the devils from running
straight through the town.)
A CHINESE PAGODA
We
wandered around without knowing where we were going, and unable to make
inquiries as none of the natives understood a word of English when, in
our worst, straits, one of the Chinese stewards from the vessel came
along. He could talk a little English, and after we made him understand
our situation, he got an old man to pilot us, with instructions to take
us through the best part of the city. We found, to get out of our fix,
we had to pass through a gate and up some flights of stairs, which
accounted for our inability to find our way about.
It
seems strange to go into a store and be served by a man having nothing
on him but a pair of pants and very short ones at that; there are no
sales ladies out here.
Children until they are six or eight years old have nothing on them at
all, but the girls and women are very modestly and generally neatly
attired and their hair is always done up neatly. It was also strange to
see us going along with an umbrella to keep the scorching sun from us
and note the natives going along not only bare headed, but with all the
front part of their heads shaved clean. The sun does not seem to have
any effect on their naked bodies.
This
is the great tea exporting port. Most of the tea comes from the Island
of Formosa, twelve hours' steaming from here. It is all brought over in
small steamers of less than one thousand tons register, and put in
warehouses to be repacked and reshipped to nearly every part of the
world. A great deal of it goes to New York.
(Since the foregoing was written, what a change has taken place. The tea
of Formosa is all exported by Japanese and shipped from the new seaport
of Keelung, which place was unknown at that lime. Tarn Sui was then the
largest port of Formosa, and was only for small vessels drawing not more
than twelve feet of water.)
SHANGHAI
From
Amoy we sailed for Woo-sung and from there returned to Shanghai.
One
peculiarity of Shanghai is the wheelbarrow in use. The wheel is about
three feet in diameter, and the body is larger than our largest ones.
The coolies carry passengers in these, sometimes three people on each
side, their feet hanging down. The man has a strap over his shoulders by
which he carries the weight. They carry immense loads of merchandise,
bricks, stone, furniture, and, in fact, anything. I saw one man wheeling
a barrow with a hog on one side and a man on the other (Only the Chinese
patronize them; the whites use the rickshaws.) There are no chairs but a
great deal of merchandise is carried on bamboo poles with two men.
The
buildings are mostly of cut stone and some brick, and the streets are
substantially- built, which gives the city a very solid appearance. One
sees a great: many European houses and blocks going up wherever one
goes. The European troops are here in great numbers and large barracks
are occupied by them. Each nation has a place of its own. and it looks
as if they intended to stay.
TSINGTAU
We
left Shangha for Tsingtau, but when we arrived off the latter port it
was blowing such a gale we were unable to land for some time. When we
did get ashore we took rickshaws and looked the town over. It appears
the Chinese had a town or village at this place, but in 1899 three
German men-of-war anchored here and sent their crews ashore to invite
the townspeople to move off about two miles. They saw there was no use
to refuse, so their town was leveled to the ground, nothing being left
except a temple. The Germans then laid out a fine city with wide
streets, and in the length of time they have occupied the place they
have done wonders. The German government made the streets and have quite
a city of modern houses, mostly large three-story blocks of stone and
brick. To date they have expended over three million dollars. No Chinese
are allowed to live in this city, but they have quite a town a short
distance off. The population is entirely German and the trade will be
exclusively for the Germans.
There
are two harbors. The town is on a peninsula with a harbor on each side.
On the north side they were building a breakwater for deep sea ships,
which would take three years to complete. The strange thing about all
this great outlay was that there was no export trade at all--all import
and nothing going out. The Germans had built one hundred and twenty
miles of railroad and were still building. They also had a few good coal
mines from which they expected to get coal in a short time. So far the
whole place was just a great military and naval camp, and the
government's money was keeping the whole thing up. This may suit the
German taxpayers but it would not go long with Americans. No one seemed
to know if there was to be much commerce or not. Some hoped if the
railroad were extended to the Grand Canal, which runs from Hangchow to
Peking, that they might tap some trade, but the country-through which
the railroad passes is non-productive.
(Many
changes have taken place here since this visit. Under almost
insurmountable difficulties the Germans kept steadily at it with one
object in view—to get there, and they did get there, as out of almost
nothing, to their credit be it said, they built up a great trade. And
when their position was assured, the war
within nations of Europe gave Japan an easy opportunity of ousting them,
and not only taking Tsingtau, but of taking possession or practically
all this part of Shantung Province. Looking at it from the German side,
it is certainly very sad and discouraging to the very enterprising
Germans who worked night and day to make a success of this enterprise
and now see it handed over to the Japanese. The only obstacle in the way
of the Japanese is Weihaiwei on the Shantung promontory, which is
occupied by the English and which to Japan must very much resemble the
proverbial wart on the man's nose)
CHEFOO
We
were ashore all one day at Chefoo. The German, English and American
Consulates are on a high point and are pleasantly located. The grounds
are well kept. The business part of the city is at the foot of the hill,
commencing at the harbor and running across the narrow peninsula to the
ocean, where there is a fine, sandy beach and a very good European
hotel, club houses, etc. Steamers of fifteen feet draft lay a quarter of
a mile out, and those of twenty four feet would have to lay off a half
mile, but there is a very good harbor for small boats, junks, etc., and
there is a great number of them, I should say running into the
thousands.
The
Chinese customs have a fine stone wharf for small boats to receive and
deliver cargo. On this wharf there was an enormous amount of merchandise
of every kind, some going out and some coming in. The waterfront is a
very busy place. A great article of export to other ports of China:s
beau cake. It is bean from which the oil has been pressed out and the
residue pressed into cakes about the size and shape of a large
grindstone, which is used as a fertilizer. Silk is extensively
manufactured here, but it is not the finest kind. The mulberry trees are
very scarce and the cocoons feed on the oak leaves which produces a
coarser kind of silk called pongee.
Not
much lumber is used here, but what there is of it is all native wood
brought in logs hewn on four sides, from Northern China and Korea.
This
city is not far from the new mouth of the Hoang-ho or Yellow River, of
whose disastrous floods we have read so much. Its mouth has changed
several hundred miles in a few hundred years. Now it empties on the
north side of the Shantung peninsula, though it has been known to empty
on the south side, many miles apart. Down this river comes the great
commerce that keeps up Chefoo.
I do
not think that I have explained that the Customs of China are under the
management of the English The Chinese could not trust their own people
for fear the officials would steal the money. They claim that under the
present arrangement the Government gets every cent paid in, it being
honestly collected and paid over. The Chinese Government has no
government post or mail service. A few companies in various cities carry
letters for short distances, but there is no general mail in China. The
European nations each have a post office of their own, and you can mail
your letter in a Japanese, English, German, or French post office, and a
letter coming in is sent to the post office of the language in which it
is written. The United States has only one, located in Shanghai. This is
causing considerable confusion. The Japanese, in Japan, have a very good
system, the same as ours.
(Since this was written, the Chinese have adopted the modern post office
under government supervision, and it is a success.
The
following figures show how much of a success:
We
got chairs and went through the town. There arc no wheeled vehicles here
except wheelbarrows and they like to hear them squeak, so put no oil on
the gudgeons on purpose, and when several of them are being wheeled
together they make unearthly sounds. The streets are fairly well paved,
but a little rough although a little wider than in most Chinese cities,
being from eight to ten feet wide, full of lanes, court yards and
alleys.
We
wanted to go to a wholesale silk store. First we had to go through a
grocery store into a courtyard with beds of flowers and shrubs, along
the sides of which appeared to be restaurants; from here we went through
an alley, three feet wide and crooked, into another courtyard which was
paved, then through another three-foot alley into a small open square
twenty feet each way. On one side of this square was the store. This
will give an idea of how-business is done.
In
one part of the city there is a creek which, at this time of the year,
is nearly dry. The houses are built right up on the bank, and they use
the creek bed for a street, with a small filthy stream running through
the middle of ;t. There are a great many native houses which
are built mostly of stone, small but very substantial. The houses have
to be warm as they have plenty of cold weather and the snow often lies
on the ground for months.
We
visited an industrial school conducted by a Mr. McMullan independently
of any society. There seemed to be about fifty girls all learning
Chinese and English, and half of their time they employed in making silk
lace of very beautiful patterns. Then there was a separate part for boys
where they made brushes, and all the material that was put into these
two products was grown in this vicinity
TONGKU
We
landed at Tongku. which s a new railroad town at the mouth of the Pei ho
River and opposite the town of Taku. These two places were destroyed at
the time of the Boxer trouble and are just being rebuilt. The houses are
mostly plastered on the outside with river mud, giving to the place a
yellowish appearance, the same color as the river. The Taku forts are
now just hills of sand. All round this are the flags of the various
nations, generally a bamboo pole stuck in the ground with a flag on it;
Japanese, German and Russian flags are very much in evidence. Whether
they claim those parts or not, no one knows, but no one dares to take
one of the flags down.
The
railroad station looks like a boy's game. There are five or six sentry
boxes on the platform with a few soldiers in each, with their national
flag over them. The English were running it the day we went up to
Tientsin, but the next day the Chinese took possession, the sentry boxes
disappeared and the yellow flag of China was over all the stations. The
reason of this was that the Boxer War had just come to an end a few days
before, when the country was under martial law, and now it was being
turned over to the Chinese Government—really these were very troublous
and exciting times, and the ravages of war were in evidence on every
hand.
PEKING
On
the way to Peking we passed through a very fine country, level all the
way, most of it like gardens. Everywhere there were evidences of
war—ruined houses, many of them riddled with bullet holes. The whole
country seems to have been laid waste. The railroad was not allowed
inside the wall and, as all the gates were shut at sundown, and, as we
arrived after dark, no Chinese could get in, but they opened a small
door in the big gate to let the foreigners in. We got rickshaws inside
the wall and went to the Hotel du Nord.* The entrance was a narrow
passage way protected by a big gate or door, The hotel comprised
twenty-two small buildings walled 111 and ail of one story. In the
building, where our room was, there were only two rooms.
[*
In case an
erroneous idea may be conveyed here as to the hotels o£ Peking, I will
explain that at this time, sixteen years ago, the only hotel for
foreigners was this one, and it was a hard old place at which to stay.
At the present time the Hotel de Wagon Lits is as good as can be found
anywhere in the Far East, it having several hundred rooms. There is also
the Hotel de Peking, which Is quite good. Of course these would not
compare with the skyscrapers of New York, but they are good enough.
Peking- has undergone great changes tor the better since those days.
Street improvements, sewers, buildings, and, in fact, everything has
gone ahead to meet the advanced civilization. Just one year before we
were there the Empress Dowager had decreed that all Christians should be
put to death
At
the present time, just think of the change that has taken place. When
the President, Yuen Shai Kai, opened the Peking Young Men's
Christian Association he told Mr. Matt if he would remain if China he
would assist him to get a Young Men's Christian Association in every
large city of China. The far-seeing Confucianism see that the
evangelization of China means safety, security and a certainty of China
becoming a great and strong nation. The handwriting is on the wall.]
Peking is different from any Chinese city we have seen. It is laid out
like a modern city with good wide streets and all at right angles, but
they are not paved, so the dust was as bad as the mud would be in
winter. There are lots of wheeled vehicles, mostly carts. These have no
springs and the occupants sit on the floor of the vehicle! on matting.
Generally, they have a cover, and veils can be drawn so one inside
cannot be distinguished. Donkeys are much used for riding. You see some
the size of a big dog. often with a big man on it and a coolie running
behind with a whip to make it go. The carts are queer looking things,
having wheels built up and the axles projecting outside of the hub about
ten Inches, so that in passing one it is not well to drive too close to
it. We also saw a freight pack train of camels all loaded. There were a
great number of them ready for a journey of many hundreds of miles.
The
Chinese here are very different from the Cantonese. They are much larger
and darker, and do not talk the same dialect. The city is walled off
into many different parts: the Chinese City, Tartar City, Imperial and
Forbidden Cities, etc. like all Chinese cities there are no sewers, and
the water is drawn from wells and delivered to the houses in
wheelbarrows and carts. From the drum tower, where the drums are sounded
for the opening and closing of the gates, a very fine view of the city
can be obtained.
The
Temple of Confucius is a very fine building. There were about three
hundred priests here, and when we visited it they were all repeating
passages from Confucius, keeping-time with several drums and at
intervals to the music from a band which we could not see. All their
heads were shaven, and they wore peculiar cocked hats when outside. At
this place there is a statue of Confucius seventy-five feet high by
thirty feet wide. This temple has many buildings and large grounds with
beautiful trees. It is a beautiful building, highly ornamented in
Oriental style, but has no idols in it.
We
next visited the great Temple to Buddha. This, on the other hand, had
many idols and images of various kinds. The largest and principal one is
of three women all in gold leaf. The grounds and buildings are very
extensive, and there are many gates to go through before you reach the
"Holy of Holies," but it is not well kept up and is out of repair.
In
the walled city we passed around the Imperial City. No one is allowed in
there, and the Forbidden City is inside of it, but from the drum tower
we got a fair idea of what it is like. There are many gates and walls to
go through to get to the palace, around which there is quite a forest of
trees and a beautiful large lake. The outer wall is also surrounded by a
moat of water about one hundred feet wide.
On
the south side of the city we went through the legations and foreign
houses. Great work was going on building new and much better houses than
the old ones destroyed by the Boxers. We saw many effects of the siege
in shattered walls and houses full of bullet holes.
We
passed through the outer wall and went to see the Temple of Heaven,
which is about three or four miles outside of the outer wall. A very
wide, partly paved road, which is much out of repair, leads out past it,
being one of the principal thoroughfares from the east. The grounds are
enclosed with a high stone wall, which is three and one-half miles in
circumference. Here again there are many gates to go through, and a
Chinese gate is no ordinary affair, being a very large building highly
ornamented with carving, etc. Then we came to a large marble platform
about two hundred by four hundred feet, raised about twenty feet from
the ground. Once a year the Emperor comes here, and changes his clothes
in a tent erected for the purpose, then goes along a roadway two hundred
feet wide and one thousand feet long, all marble (all the buildings,
pavement, etc., are of white marble) to the altar of Heaven. This is a
very line building over one thousand years old, having a beautiful dome
all painted when it was built and never having been touched since, and
looking as though it were done yesterday. There is an altar at which he
kneels and prays for himself and family, then he goes about one thousand
feet further to the Temple of Heaven and prays for his people and the
nation. Part of this building was burned down a few years ago and
rebuilt. Many of the gold ornaments which had been there were stolen by
the Russian soldiers. The doors are massive and are fastened with large
nails on the outside of which are gold washers, three inches in
diameter. The building is just a large circular edifice supported by
pillars, the roof being an immense dome. The decorations and paintings
are beautiful, and the gardens are arranged beautifully also. There is a
building called the Throne Room in which the Emperor receives the
principal men of the kingdom after the ceremony. There is also a palace
in which he sleeps all night, and then he leaves for another year.
On
the way hack from the city we met many camel pack trains, mule trams,
people in rickshaws, on horseback, bicycles, on mules and asses, in
wheelbarrows, in carts and sedan chairs, and thousands on foot, all
carrying some kind of load, and the dust from that mixed multitude was
blinding,
TIENTSIN
Tientsin is twenty-five miles by rail from Taku and is eighty-seven
miles from Peking, at the mouth of the Peiho River, and is the seaport
for Peking and of great commercial importance. It is forty-seven miles
by water from Taku, owing to the crooks of the
river. For some time the river has been
silting up, but they have two dredgers at work and vessels of ten feet
can reach this city at high water. The river is so narrow we had to come
down two miles stern first before we found a place wide enough to turn
round, so navigation is rather difficult—there were two pontoon
bridges to come through. Most of the freight
comes up the river in lighters and junks. The city was about demolished
by the troops, and they are busy budding it again. The wall around the
city was destroyed and in its place they have built a fine wide street
and a good sewer.
(It
must be remembered that this short description was written a few months
after most of the city had been destroyed by the Boxers and the allied
troops. The pontoon bridges were replaced by substantial, permanent
structures, and the river has been straightened and deepened so that
navigation for vessels of twelve to fourteen feet is possible. In fact,
the city is so improved that it does not look like its former self. We
own two half city blocks fronting on the river and about the center of
the concessions, on which we have our lumber yard, offices and
warehouses.)
The
lumber imports are very great, mostly logs from Korea. Coming out of the
Yalu River I counted twenty large junks loaded with logs from twelve
inches to fourteen feet in diameter. The deck loads were about fourteen
feet high and timber four tiers wide, outhanging eight feet on each
side, and twelve feet high, The logs are hung in ropes, and when the
junk is on an even beam they just clear the water: when she lists, they
are in the water. It looks like a small donkey with great packs on each
side. They seem to be quite secure as I have never seen any out of
place. They discharge at Taku. and are rafted in rafts about twenty-five
feet wide and over one, thousand feet long, and taken on flood tide to
Tientsin, and there all sawn by hand into the sizes required. Some of
the logs are hewn on two sides, but most are square; a great number of
the round ones are used for coffins. In addition to this there is
merchandise of all kinds going in. I saw a lot of old boilers going in
to be cut into pieces. I was told the blacksmiths cut those into
anything that is wanted; a great deal being made into horseshoes, all by
hand. The exports are wool, hides, tea and coffee. The new city is
fairly well laid out. The foreign part was mostly saved, and is well
built. The streets are well paved, and there are some parks and many
shade trees.
There
are a great many military men here and lots of soldiers. The United
States is represented by a gunboat at Tongku.
CHINWANGTAO
One
great drawback is the shallowness of the bar and the fact of its being
frozen up for three or four months a year. They are starting a new port
at Chinwangtao, one hundred miles off. It never freezes and it looks as
if it is going to be the place, as vessels can lay alongside of the
wharf. At Taku the big ships lay so far out that they cannot see land.
Our steamer drew eight and one-half feet, and had to wait two days to
get a tide high enough to get iron.
The
country from Tientsin to Taku is very rich and fertile. In passing down
the river we saw lots of men irrigating their fields by dipping water
from the river in pails and carrying it to the ditches.
The
Grand Canal passes here from Hangchow; I think it is about fifteen
hundred miles long in all and was constructed many hundreds of years
ago. Truly, they are a wonderful people, this, and the building of the
Great Wall would take a civilized nation many years to build, but they
can put a few million men to work and never miss them. They claim over
four hundred million, but there is no telling how many there are, as
there are lots of places which white men have never as yet reached.
THE CHINESE METHOD OF DISCHARGING LIGHTERS—TIENTSIN |
